With remarkable advances in computer, telecommunication and network technologies, information delivery or content delivery service has been proliferating and advancing to deliver not only traditional radio and television signals, but also audio, video or other multimedia contents. The contents can be delivered via cable, satellite, optical fibers, wireless communication networks, or the like. Meanwhile, the contents can be transmitted among various terminals such as personal computers, media players, cellular phones, televisions, personal digital assists (PDAs) or other electronic devices while using different protocols. For example, a user may use the personal computer to transmit traffic information to his or her friend's cellular phone via wireless communication networks, including the Internet.
In addition to vehicle navigation systems, more and more electronic devices, including cell phones, have been equipped with location determining means, such as a global positioning system (GPS), to determine the user's current location and provide the user with dynamic point-of-interest (POI) information. However, the POI information stored in a database of a device may not be updated frequently, and the user may feel frustrated, for example, when the user drives to a restaurant suggested by the device and found that the restaurant has been out of business. Moreover, the POI information in the device is rather limited which may only include POI name, address and telephone number. The user may want to know more about the POI to determine whether this POI is worth going. For example, when the user searches for restaurants to have dinner in his navigation device, the user may want to know each restaurant's menu, recommended dishes, opening hour, rating, etc., in addition to basic POI name, address and phone number. A need exists for users to receive more information about POIs to make an intelligent decision before actually going.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,073 to Ihara et al. discloses an information terminal device capable of receiving and displaying POI information from information servers, and providing the user with further information of a route, distance and traffic condition to the POI or POIs, as can be seen in FIG. 1. Furthermore, the information terminal device is configured to communicate with every information provider on the communication network without restraint as long as the information is provided in the tag format. However, Ihara does not teach anything related to an idea of receiving POI information from different information providers and generating filtered and organized POI information to the user if inconsistent POI information (from different information providers) exists.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,581 to Ooishi discloses a navigation system designed to provide real-time information from a server to the user. More specifically, the navigation system transmits the user's positional information to the server, which transmits real-time information on areas in the traveling direction of the user to the user's navigation system, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The real-time information may include a congested state of a restaurant and allow the user to make a reservation at the restaurant through a communication network. However, Ooishi does not disclose how to filter and organize the real-time information before presenting to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,321,826 to Sheha discloses a method and system for searching and retrieving location information associated with one or more POIs, as can be seen in FIG. 3. More specifically, the system is configured to search various POIs within a given search zone, such as a radial search or a zip code or city search, based on position information from a navigational device. A plurality of search criteria will be applied and the criteria can be dependent upon the location of a POI with respect to the real-time position of the user, and any preferences or search restrictions selected by the user, such as rating information about the POI. Like Ihara and Ooishi, Sheha does not teach anything related to receiving POI information from different information providers and generating filtered and organized POI information to the user if inconsistent POI information (from different information providers) exists.
Therefore, there remains a need for a new and improved apparatus and method to deliver content or information to the user. More specifically, the apparatus and method is adapted to provide content or information from a plurality of databases, and further filter and organize such content or information before presenting to the user.